Abstract [en]

The thesis is a contemporary analysis of parts of the Swedish welfare system. Co-operation between agencieswithin the welfare system and provision of welfare services by organizations within the voluntary sector are two contemporary tendencies. Both studies are focusing on the rehabilitation process for individuals who have been excluded from the labour market for a longer time period. The first study describes and analyzes co-operation in a three year project as a strategy for provision of complex welfare services (the ReSam project). The second study describes and analyzes the club house model of rehabilitation (the Fountain House movement).The first study is based on a process evaluation, where different kinds of data were collected through interviews, focus groups and diaries. These data were subsequently analyzed with qualitative methods. The second study isparticipant oriented, which means that a group of members conducted the study in co-operation with the re-searcher. The study isexplorative and research data were collected in a variety of ways including detailed notes, taped interviews and cognitive maps.The results of the first study show that it was possible to co-operate across the organizational boundaries of the different agencies involved, but there were obstacles related to organizational and cultural differences between the agencies, divided loyalties of the officials involved, and limited resources available to deal with the complex needs of the clients. The most important factor was that the officials learnt more about each other and the agencies involved. The result of the second study reveals that daily work tasks forms, deepens and reinvents both relationships as well as the supportive environment. Supportive mechanisms were an explicit ideology, plain structure of the meetings, frequent held working groups and thecertification process. Furthermore, it was important that the taskswere considered as necessaryand made a dif-ference. On the other hand, the members described the clubhouse environment as restricting for some. In the discussion, trust is used as a concept which spans over individual, interpersonal and organizational levels and becomes a useful tool as a theoretical concept binding the two studies to-gether. Trust was revealed as the most important ingredient as it comes to establishing sustainable relationships on a group level. Finally, some possible future scenarios are drawn up and discussed concerning the roles and relations between the welfare system and contemporary new forms of orga-nizing welfare services.